


Notes From A Tour Bus Parked At A Gas Station Somewhere Between Detroit And Kalamazoo

by snsk



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: M/M, tatinof usa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-29
Updated: 2016-04-29
Packaged: 2018-06-05 04:46:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6689860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snsk/pseuds/snsk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Had anything changed? Phil’s hair pushed away from his forehead in the American heat, his smile and lowered voice as he crouched to talk to a seven year old. The known curve of his welcoming shoulder as Dan slipped into the bed beside him, bus parked in the unknown darkness of Jacksonville, St Louis, Kalamazoo. Locking up the house, one last sweeping glance, eyes landing on the list of last-minute things they were supposed to do before they left.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Notes From A Tour Bus Parked At A Gas Station Somewhere Between Detroit And Kalamazoo

Dan caught Phil’s eye.

“ _Don’t_ ,” he warned. “Phil! No!”

“I just,” Phil said, and got up off the sofa. “Dan! I’m stocking up!”

“You’re giving yourself diabetes is what you’re doing,” Dan corrected, “and you know about American healthcare.”

“Follow me,” Phil said. “It’s time you got some exercise, anyway.”

“I’ve spent days at home without moving, and you know that,” Dan informed him, but he pushed his laptop onto the cushion and got to his feet, anyway.

Outside, Brett waved, and Lisa looked up from where she was running her hands under a tap. “Hey,” she called. “Come for the sun?”

It was a relentless sort of assault, this warmth; it made Dan’s neck feel immediately sticky, made him wish he was in shorts.

“Yeah, and now I’m heading back,” he answered, but Phil grabbed at his elbow and tugged him towards the glass doors, laughing.

 

“You know we probably won’t have enough space in our luggage for this,” Dan said, watching the Twizzlers pile up in Phil’s arms.

“I’ll do whatever it takes,” Phil replied. “I’ll empty out your suitcase if I have to.”

“I wouldn’t put it past you,” Dan said, shaking his head at this incredible lack of compassion.

“Your Yeezys are expendable,” Phil told him, placing his purchases onto the counter. Jackson, the cashier’s nametag read, stared at the pile, and slowly started ringing them up.

Dan took out his phone. [@danisnotonfire _: the cashier’s making judgy eyes at phil’s mountain of sweets. i don’t blame him_ ], and attached a photo of Phil, two bags laden with his licorice.

@marioxox24 replied: _my husband proposed to me with twizzlers! Spelled “marry me” out. V romantic. Phil should take notes!!_

Dan’s thumb slipped, caught on the heart, which exploded into fireworks. He only noticed when he scrolled up, saw the beginnings of a fandom breakdown. _DJNSKJKDJS FUCK FUCK FUCK_ , they yelled. _DID U FUCKIGN JUST_

“Shit,” he said, out loud.

Phil, slipping his wallet back, looked up. Dan wordlessly passed him the phone.

“Oh,” Phil said. “Oh. Well.” He paused. “It _was_ an accident, wasn’t it?”

Dan stared at him.

“Have a great day!” Jackson chirped.

“Aw, thanks!” Phil answered, ever-polite. “You too!” He pushed open the door. Dan followed.

“Jesus, Phil,” Dan said. “ _Yes_ , it was an accident.”

“Oh,” Phil said. He peered down at his bags. “Okay then!”

“Oh okay then?” Dan repeated. “What does _oh okay then_ even m-”

“J, you going up?” Phil interrupted. “Would you take this please?” J smiled at them and took the bags.

“Let’s go for a walk,” Phil suggested once J had disappeared into the tour bus.

“It’s a gas station,” Dan said, looking around. “There is no place to take a walk.”

“Shush now,” Phil told him, and made a round, past their bus and the small Hummer next to it, past a Jeep and a silver Corolla. He sat himself on the curb next to the air pump. Dan sat next to him. His ass burned against the hot concrete; there was no shade here.

Phil said: “I saw the registry site.”

“What registry site?” Dan answered automatically.

Phil gave him a look.

“Why were you snooping through my phone anyway?” Dan asked. He could feel himself going through it, all textbook: deny deny deny, then go on the offensive. Phil knew how he worked.

Phil knew how he worked, so he merely said: “You passed it to me to look up that reddit thread. It was also under recent tabs.”

Dan could have fucking sworn he’d been incognito. Fucking late night browsing.

“Dan,” Phil said. “I don’t know what to - has anything changed?”

Had anything changed? Phil’s hair pushed away from his forehead in the American heat, his smile and lowered voice as he crouched to talk to a seven year old. The known curve of his welcoming shoulder as Dan slipped into the bed beside him, bus parked in the unknown darkness of Jacksonville, St Louis, Kalamazoo. Locking up the house, one last sweeping glance, eyes landing on the list of last-minute things they were supposed to do before they left.

 _Don’t_ , Phil had written, for some reason, _forget to pack your darker purple boxers. The ones with the better elastic._ He’d forgotten to pack half the underwear he needed, anyway, but somehow he’d remembered Dan’s darker purple boxers with the better elastic.

Such mundane things.

Had anything changed?

“Yes,” Dan said. “No. I don’t know.”

“Helpful,” Phil observed.

He put his hand on Dan’s knee. Dan looked up on reflex; in a gas station in nowhere really, USA, would there really be people to pay enough attention? To care? Even half as much as Dan did?

Dan looked at Phil. Phil didn’t take his hand away. So Dan refused to care half as much, as well.

“If you-,” Phil said. “If anything has. Come talk to me about it. That’s how we work.”

This was not exactly the truth. This was how they worked: in exchanged glances and hidden smiles, the warmth of Phil’s knee against Dan under the office desk. They did not need to talk about the things that mattered. Except, in this case, it would only work if they did.

But this was how they worked: they both knew that.

“You know how we agreed that marriage is just a piece of paper?” Dan asked.

Phil nodded.

“Well,” Dan said. The sun was making his t-shirt damp around the collar, sweat gathering around his ribs. “I kind of want to be piece of papered to you. Sometimes.”

Lisa shouted at Brett, “You forgot the _fucking_ Sprite!”

“Well,” Phil concluded, eventually. “Well.”

“If you wanted,” Dan added. Because even if - well, it was presumptuous, really, and perfectly plausible that Phil didn’t-

“Are you proposing to me,” Phil asked, very evenly, “on the curb of a gas station just out of Detroit?”

Dan considered how this sounded. “Maybe a pre-proposal?”

“A _pre_ -,” Phil said, and started laughing, fingers digging into Dan’s knee, just enough to anchor, just enough to brand.

Cars sped by. Volvo, Mustang, the proud rush of a Highlander. The heat bore upon them. Steady, scorching. Dan said, “I hope this is the good kind of amused.”

“We,” Phil said, turning towards him, “are talking about this more. After all this-” he swept a hand towards the bus, the crew members milling around. He meant, _all of this_. He meant, _in a space where there is the two of us, only._ He meant, _in the home we made together_. This was how they worked: he did not have to say it. “-but yes. Yes. Yes to the pre-proposal, Dan. Yes.”

Dan really didn’t have to feel this relieved. He definitely did not have to feel the need to wrap his arms around his sort of pre-fiance and kiss him, kiss him, kiss him while the sun and their tour crew and whatever divine being existed looked on.

“I love you,” he offered, instead.

“God, Dan Howell,” Phil replied, rather forcefully. “Do you even _know_ -”

He looked straight at Dan, then. His eyes were bright. Dan wanted to kiss him. Dan wanted to _marry_ him.

“You don’t even know,” Phil said. “How much I - how _much_.”

**Author's Note:**

> rarely do things i've finished writing fill me with a sense of pleased satisfaction, but this one did. i have no idea why, but i'm really happy with it. i am. tell me what you thought!


End file.
